October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month — a reminder that early detection saves lives. In this conversation, Lindsey Fauveau, M.D., medical director of breast surgical oncology at Woman’s Hospital, shares how the hospital’s state-of-the-art mobile unit brings 3D mammograms directly to communities across Louisiana. She also explains why early detection matters, and how education and outreach are transforming breast cancer care for women everywhere.

Tom Haederle

Welcome to Advancing Health. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Each year more than 300,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer. And like most cancers, the earlier it's detected, the better the prognosis. In today's podcast, we learn how one hospital has increased the reach of its mammogram screenings by sending a state of the art mobile unit out to communities - making care accessible where people are.

Julia Resnick

Hi, I'm Julia Resnick, senior director of health outcomes and transformation here at the American Hospital Association. I'm really happy to be here today with Dr. Lindsey Fauveau, the medical director of breast surgical oncology at Women's Hospital in Baton Rouge. Lindsey, thank you so much for joining me.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

Thank you for having me.

Julia Resnick

You know, the timing for this really couldn't be better because to all our listeners, I just turned 40. And two days after turning 40, I got a nice message for my health system saying it's time for a mammogram. So what a great opportunity to talk about mammograms and how the important they are for women. Can you start by telling us a little bit about Women's Hospital in the community you serve, and really what the breast cancer landscape looks like in your region?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

Absolutely. Women's Hospital is a woman dedicated, very woman centric hospital located in Baton Rouge. We serve not only the greater Baton Rouge community, but, pretty much statewide. I love as a breast surgeon, we have a really focused, breast centric workplace here. We have dedicated surgeons, as well as medical oncologists and radiation oncologists, who lead to a very wide breadth and depth of expertise when it comes to taking care of not only breast cancer. But because this is a women's hospital

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

we also are dedicated to gynecologic cancer and obviously having babies. So premium obstetric care and the thing that I really like to put in the forefront is that our radiologists, our mammography, is the most important to this hospital. They are really skilled. They are supreme with regards to what there is offered in Louisiana. So they're very talented and they catch a lot of things that otherwise wouldn't be noticed

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

if you were somewhere else in the state.

Julia Resnick

Amazing. Your community is really lucky to have you. And I know that you're based in a pretty urban area, but serve rural communities. So are you seeing differences in breast cancer rates and treatment between urban and rural communities?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

There is really a great depth of data, not only with regards to the cancer community in Louisiana, but as you well know, there's a lot of barriers to care for access if you are not close to of a comprehensive center like Women's Hospital. So unfortunately, what that does is it leads to an increased incidence of cancers in rural areas as compared to urban areas like Baton Rouge or New Orleans or Lafayette or Shreveport.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

But ultimately, what we're trying to do here at Women's Hospital is to increase access, increase our availability to outlying communities to decrease barriers to care and to lead to better outcomes throughout the state of Louisiana.

Julia Resnick

Wonderful. So I think that transitions us nicely to talking about your mobile mammography program. So can you tell me about the coach and how it came about?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so as the technology has increased to our current state, we do 3D mammography on our brand new coach. We're able to give communities who otherwise would have prior availability of updated technology, access to something that's right here in Baton Rouge. And so it's really changed the game and giving the greater community of Louisiana as much of what we have, as if you walked in the door of women's campus.

Julia Resnick

Yeah. And that access piece is just so key because, you know, if your mammogram is not convenient, it will be hard to get people to want to do this. So can you walk me through how the program extends care? Like where do you typically meet patients, and how do your community partners support that?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

So the way that the mammography coach works is that they have dedicated schedules. So if, a particular community or a company or whatever it may be wants to offer this service to their patrons or their church family or, you know, whatever it may be, they reach out to Women's Hospital, they have a dedicated trip. So that helps that community then advertise because you would think that that if you build it, they will come is a pretty transparent thing.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

But no, the world we live in today, if you build it, they might come. So you have to tell them. So we want it to be scheduled so that we have as much people that take advantage as possible. And so there are 15 minute appointments where you are scheduled and it goes through your insurance if you have insurance. There's outreach programs

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

if you don't have insurance. But the mammography techs are on the unit. So you are having the same techs that are in the hospital do your mammogram on a scheduled time so you can go at a very predictable time and live your life. And that mammography image digitally goes to our radiologists here at Women's Hospital. And they get real time feedback on if they need additional images.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so it's really nice to upgrade the system, have a brand new coach and provide that kind of experience, remotely, which is when you think about it, where we came from, where you're driving around in a van with paper mammography charts that have to then be put up on walls with like, backlighting for them to look at.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

It's just amazing to think where we've come from, where we've started.

Julia Resnick

Yeah, that's a huge upgrade. And getting state of the art medical equipment anywhere and everywhere, is incredible. I wonder how you all manage, like the stigma or reluctance around mammography, because some people are just...there are remaining concerns about if they should do this and why.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

I think that that is something that's very important to touch. In addition to the obvious barriers to care being the fact that you have to either if you're not near a coach, you have to physically go to a hospital, which to some people is not ideal. They also are more acutely aware in the current climate of what am I doing to my body?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

What am I putting in my body? What is this going to do in the long run? And I think that's very important. But I think that there's a lot of disinformation and misinformation on the internet that can lead you to not doing something that actually the benefit outweighs the risk. So with a singular mammogram, that equates to three months worth of your exposure to background energy of the Earth.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

So things like uranium, things that are in the dirt that we are physically standing on. If you are standing on this earth for three months, you've got your milligram. So it's really like a drop in the bucket when you think about it. And then the benefits that you would gain or that it can change your life, it can cause you to have an early detected breast cancer that's going to have a better prognosis, may even get you out of some treatments like chemotherapy.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so the benefits tremendously outweigh the risk of having a mammogram.

Julia Resnick

And I'm sure that as you've been doing this work, you have a lot of stories that kind of illustrate the impact of the mobile coach. Are there any of those you'd be willing to share?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

I am a very big proponent of knowing your medical history, knowing not only yours, but your family history. I consider this a miracle, but it's not as, granular as, like, you went from a very poor prognosis to like, surviving. But in my own experience with this particular patient, I do consider it one of the miracles that I've witnessed.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

So within the realm of breast surgical oncology, we not only take care of cancer patients, but we take care of those that are high risk of breast cancer. And so knowing your mammogram density is part of that risk factor. And so sometimes your ObGyn or your mammogram can prompt you to knowing that your high risk of breast cancer.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And if that's the case and you're lucky enough to go to a high risk clinic, then you'll be met with a surgeon who's going to do a risk assessment and then potentially genetic testing. So the patient that I have in mind was identified through her mammogram as being high risk. She came to see me. She had a stark family history.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

She was recommended for genetic testing. She ended up having a mutation that was going to really tremendously increase her risk of having breast cancer. And so she elected to do risk reducing surgery with her particular mutation. And I don't like surprises personally as a surgeon. So I want to have breast imaging prior to going to the operating room.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so we set her up with some imaging approximately a week before her planned surgery. And lo and behold, it diagnosed her with early stage breast cancer. So she went into that same surgery, which is supposed to be risk reducing and then became curative. And so it really shows like the full depth and breadth of everything that we do.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

So this isn't just a cancer service. We do preventative, we do treatment. We see everything from benign all the way up to the most aggressive cancer that there is. And all of it truly matters because it's so circular. Right? So my patient who has cancer has family members who are high risk. And so we have to take the whole patient into consideration.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And I love that patient story, particularly because it highlights the importance of not just having the program, getting the diagnosis. It shows that like what we do in continuity can change the outcome. And she is just - she's thriving. It did not cause any anxiety because everything was already set up. I mean, it was kind of pretty remarkable about how that worked out.

Julia Resnick

That so beautifully illustrates the power of prevention and why it's just important to know before things go downhill. So as you've been doing this for a few years and are like looking ahead, what lessons have you learned, that you think other hospitals could apply?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

I think that you have to have awareness and outreach that's ongoing. You know, again, the idea that if you build it, they will come just doesn't quite work. You really need to consistently engage with your community and make sure that the education that they need to have people show up for themselves medically is there.

Julia Resnick

Fantastic. And what's next for you in all of this work?

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

I ultimately get the pleasure to oversee a lot of this as the medical director. So I head the accreditations for Women's Hospital. The acronym is NABCC, but it's national associations of breast cancer centers as well as we are CoC, which is Committee on Cancer certified. And so there's lots of national checkpoints that Women's Hospital exceeds and really excels at.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so I dive deep into that because I feel like not only Louisiana, but the Baton Rouge community deserves the best. I think that was the idea in forming Women's Hospital, born and bred in its inception with the ObGyns, who thought my deliveries, my OB patients deserve the best and I think that we carry that mentality through to cancer.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so I am very happy that we have a brand new mammography unit. I think we're going to be able to reach a lot of people in the state of Louisiana. Gearing up for October, my hopes are that our good work that we've done here will be expanded throughout the state. But as well as taking care of our house, you know, I really want to make sure that the Baton Rouge community continues to have good access and quality driven care.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

And so we've got a great team of marketing as well as business development. And I love that Women's Hospital really only focuses on women because it allows us the power to do that.

Julia Resnick

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for all the work that you do to serve your patients and to serve all the women in Baton Rouge and Louisiana. Really fantastic work. And just thank you for joining us today and for everything you do.

Lindsey Fauveau, M.D.

It was good to see you. Thank you for having me.

Julia Resnick

Likewise.

Tom Haederle

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